Okay, ladies and gents, here it is, halftone effects done originally in Photoshop, but can be converted to illy for vector work. I do not take credit for this one however, my boss showed me this nifty little trick.
Step 1. Create a document in photoshop in RGB mode. I just typed out my name to make it simple, but it can be any shape or vector brought in from illy or anything on a layer in photoshop.
Step 2. You are going to want to rasterize whatever shape it is you want to apply a halftone effect too, in this case, I right clicked on my type layer and selected “Rasterize Type.”
Now, Ctrl + Left click on your type layer in the layer palette to put a selection on it. Now go to Select>Modify>Expand and choose 10 pixels (this will very on everything, so take some time to practice) your selection should now be outside of the type, hit Ctrl + I to inverse your selection.
Step 3. With the inverse selection still active, go to your layer palette and hit the quick mask button, I have highlighted it here to show you where it’s at.
Step 4. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, this blur will determine the radius of your halftone pattern, so make it pretty noticeable at first. Hit apply on your gaussian blur and move on to the next step, your almost done!
Step 5. Okay, now go to Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone and type in these numbers (these will also change depending on what effect you want)
Pixel radius: 8
Channel 1: 108
Channel 2: 162
Channel 3: 90
Channel 4: 45
Hit apply, you should now see that it has created a quick mask halftone pattern for you like below.
Step 6. This one is easy, just go back to your layers palette and turn off your quick mask by clicking the button to the left of the quick mask button, I’ve circled it for you below in case you don’t know.
Step 7. Now that you have turned off the quick mask you will see you have a halftone selection. Create a new layer in your layer palette, and press Ctrl + F5 to fill with a foreground/background color, or go to Edit>Fill, these both do the same thing. Now fill your new layer with whatever color you want. At this point, you could go to File>Export>Paths to illustrator to create this in vector, but we will just continue in photoshop for now.
Step 8. Pat yourself on the back, you are now done with this tutorial, here is the final product.
